Entropy
by OwlsCantRead
Summary: First, there was creation. Next came destruction. After an ill-fated challenge gone catastrophically wrong, the tenuous balance between the two slowly shifted over many millennia. But the balance always prevails… Tikki and Plagg are proof of that.


In the beginning, there was nothing but white.

Light. Vibrant. Young.

And then, a crimson red being came into existence. Black spots dotted the tiny creature, a perfect reflection of what their snoozing owner was seeing.

She slept and slept until she woke up from her nap one day, her baby blue eyes assaulted with nothing but blackness. The glimmering light that was once there at the start of everything had long since faded as the universe expanded. It was now replaced by a vacant, dark void that stretched all around her.

She frowned, feeling emptiness in her heart. Confused and befuddled, she gazed around her and quickly decided that being surrounded by the empty void would not do.

As her surroundings were empty, the creative creature saw it fit to populate the area with things brought forth by her imagination. With jubilant glee and boundless joy, she began to create. "Lucky Charm, Lucky Charm, _Lucky Charm_!" she repeatedly chirped, ecstatically squealing when gas clouds coagulated upon her touch and began to form shining stars and large planets.

If anyone could actually see her at work, they would be completely enthralled by the beautiful sight that befell them. She brought numerous cosmic objects to life, laughing joyously as she did so. The previously empty space around her soon became a young, budding, nascent universe, an intergalactic nebula brimming with light and celestial objects. She tirelessly created and created day in and day out, until—

BOOM!

One of her very first stars exploded in a blaze of destructive glory.

At first, she could only stare numbly at the spot the star had been. After the shock passed, she let out a distraught cry, horrified by the fate of her precious creation. But before she could properly mourn its loss, a cackle broke through the silence. Turning to the source of the noise, she was just in time to catch a sleek, black figure out of the corner of her eye.

She gasped in surprise, her hands flying to her mouth as she saw the newcomer shooting past her and heading to a nearby planet. He was entirely black with shiny green eyes, three antenna-like objects dangling from his head instead of her two.

All this time, she had thought herself alone. How wrong she had been.

A wide smile crept onto her face. Yay, she wasn't alone!

The red being continued to observe him with curiosity until everything went catastrophically wrong.

It all started when he glanced in her direction and gaped at her. When he recovered his senses and finally found the strength within him to close his slackened jaw, he chuckled and wagged his tail about.

"Why, hello…" he greeted from a distance with a half-nasally, half-formal voice which was rather befitting of his appearance, "Care to partake in my newest performance?" he offered, twirling his whiskers-like antenna.

Before she could reply, he raised his right paw up. "Cataclysm!" he announced with vigor as his paw filled with darkness. As she watched, he headed for the planet, deftly touching it…

…and turning it entirely to dust. Layers of molten rock, earth and minerals all rapidly decomposed to nothing as he maliciously laughed at the planet's untimely demise.

There was a stunned silence as the eyes of the feline and insect intersected — one pair woeful, one pair gleeful.

"It would appear that I snoozed far longer than I'd anticipated," he muttered in a weak attempt to justify his actions, watching with a mundane expression as the last traces of the formerly vibrant planet disintegrated into nothingness. "I guess I better make up for my late start."

After relishing his latest disaster, he zoomed off in search of more prey. However, by this point the other party had recovered and was hot on his tail.

"Noooo!" she screeched in horror as she flew, her eyes widening in sheer horror as she saw her precious creations being annihilated and vaporized right in front of her, nary a thing she could do to save them. "Please, whoever you are… I implore you to stop!" she pleaded, her hands clasped together. "Don't do this…"

"No can do!" the creature curtly denied her request with an exhausted yawn, his green eyes twinkling with mischief as he swam towards her in space. "It's just so much fun to watch everything burn to cinders and ashes!"

Realizing now that words would not halt his actions, her rueful eyes coldly turned to that of subdued anger. "Maybe it's amusing for you, but it's unequivocally distressing for me… the exact opposite of fun!" She raised her voice at him, before puffing her cheeks out in anger when she saw his smug face, an expression that spoke volumes about how little he actually cared about her. "Why, you little…" she hissed at him, her blue eyes shining with anger. "I demand for you to cease this insolent behavior at once! Stop destroying my creations!"

His reply was swift and resolute.

"Never!"

Narrowing her eyes at his obstinate response, she proceeded to yank his tail, causing the feline-like creature to yelp.

"Hey!" He snarled at her, whipping the appendage away from her grip and gently rubbing a sore bruise in the general area where she had clasped his tail. "Paws off the tail, ma'am!" he ordered, his voice deadly serious.

"Oh, I'm sorry," she shot back, her usual perky demeanor replaced by one of loathing. She would normally be nicer to him, but after seeing his unrestrained antics, she was now very well aware that this person was probably her nemesis. "Perhaps now you'll know how much it hurts to have something close to you be hurt."

There was no subtlety in that statement. None whatsoever.

He hissed in response, lazily swiping a paw at her. "Now that wasn't very nice, was it? I mean, I was just having some fun!"

She furrowed her brow, an exasperated groan escaping her mouth. Her patience was quickly dwindling, which was saying something given her peppy nature. "Fun?" she echoed with a pout, "How can you possibly have fun destroying things?"

It was an honest query. Truthfully, she couldn't understand him. How and why could someone take legitimate joy in obliterating things? It ran contrary to her own mindset of manifesting objects from nothing… it stood against everything she believed in.

"Isn't it obvious?" he asked the question in a manner that made it seem like it was rhetorical.

She folded her arms, looking away with a huff. "Forgive me, but I do not know. I just cannot see things from your perspective. Please enlighten me — why do you adamantly insist on going down this calamitous path?"

"Because I can, dummy," he answered with a cocky smirk, proving to her once and for all that he was going to be a perverse pain in the hind.

"Grrr…!" she growled. A rare feeling of frustration coursed through her, in stark contrast to her usual docile personality.

His green eyes flashed as he sensed the danger. Surprisingly, he was quick to flee once he realized that the aura around the one he was teasing was turning unfriendly. "Toodles!" he waved, giving her one last passing glance as he darted away, "I've got more things to devastate!"

Right there and then, she decided that she was not going to let the rascal get away with his actions scot-free.

"You get back here right this instant!" she shouted, speeding off in rapid pursuit, "I'm not finished with you yet, kitty!"

* * *

The chase between the duo went on for an inordinately long amount of time.

For how long? She had to confess that she did not know.

After all, time held no meaning at the moment — she hadn't actually forged the concept for it yet… at least until the feline annoyed her to the extent that she found herself wondering just how long it had been since she'd first met him.

The answer which she calculated was a number with so many digits trailing behind that she immediately wished she could forget the actual figure once she learned it, as _all_ of that obscenely long time had been spent cleaning up that petulant rascal's mess.

And what a mess it was.

She created stars, blue supergiants which radiated light, rays that shone throughout the cosmos.

He mischievously touched those same stars and caused them to explode into elementary particles with a massive supernova, collapsing them into cataclysmic black holes that trapped those same beams of light, the cat making sure to cackle madly as he brought about their untimely demise.

Eventually, the game of cat-and-mouse between the two came to a head after the millionth object he destroyed with his Cataclysm.

"That's one million of my things you owe me now!" she ranted viciously at him.

To her surprise, instead of flashing his usual annoyed scowl upon being subjected to her lectures, this time he had a prideful grin proudly plastered on his face. "Aww…" he cooed, "You were actually keeping count of all those lil' itty-bitty things I wrecked?" he bantered, a teasing tone infused in his voice, "Why, I'm so touched!"

"N-No! I don't mean it that way!" she hastily backtracked when she saw him shooting her a smirk that basically screamed, _'I've been vindicated!'_

"…sure you didn't," he countered, blowing a raspberry at her in response while simultaneously widening his grin.

"D-Don't get the w-wrong idea! I just keep track of everything I make with my Lucky Charm, th-that's all!" she spluttered, trying to dig herself out of this mess. "They're all my precious babies, and you keep taking them away from me, you jerk!"

He gave her a carefree shrug. "Well, if you care about them so much, why don't you use that Miraculous Ladybug technique of yours to revive them, huh?"

"Because if I do, you'll take the opportunity to scamper away and destroy five more celestial objects in the time that it takes me to cast Miraculous Ladybug just to bring one back!" She flew towards him and bopped him on the nose. "Don't think that I forgot about the time you pulled your little stunt on me two hundred cycles ago!"

"Eh," he grumbled as she saw right through him, "thought that I could get you to fall for it again."

"I have a good memory when it comes to you." She rolled her eyes, grumbling under her breath. How could such a vile creature be allowed to come into existence? He was, like, the complete opposite of her in everything — mindset, behavior, and concept.

The very fact that he came into existence alongside her was inconceivable, implausible… _impossible!_

"Just who are you, anyway?" She disgruntledly placed her tiny stubby arms by her sides, unwilling to admit that she genuinely wanted to know this now. At least with a name, she could view him not as a target of her anger, but maybe as someone with an actual identity.

He fake-gasped, clutching his heart in a dramatic manner. "Me-owch! You know what they say… _curiosity killed the cat_—"

"You made that idiom up on the spot!" she cut in, her head beginning to throb. Seriously, he was giving her a massive migraine. "Name," she all but demanded, glaring daggers at him.

There was a momentary pause before he responded. "Name's Plagg," he replied, disinterested. The small cat raised a brow, whiskers twitching as he pointed to her with a paw. "And you?" he asked, bouncing the question back to her.

"I'm Tikki!" she responded with a shrug. She definitely wasn't going to tell him that she made the name up on the spot. After all, she had no reason to be identified by anyone other than him before now. "'Tikki' means happiness," she hesitantly added as an afterthought. That was also a mistruth, but it would not remain that way for long with a teeny bit of tweaking later on.

"Bleagh!" Plagg stuck his tongue out, gagging frivolously in disgust. "Your name means happiness? Man, that sounds so sugary and sweet… yuck, yuck, yuck!" he spat, "You're totally grossing me out. Urgh!"

"_Your behavior_ grosses me out." Tikki did not relent, mustering up all the sass that she possibly could and sending a not-so-stealth insult his way.

To her surprise, Plagg chortled at her remark. "Well, I suppose you can see it that way. But I hope you understand that that's what makes me Plagg!" he staunchly insisted, baring minuscule triangular fangs as he smiled. "Prance about and embellish your ideal truth all you want, goody-two-shoes! Because mark my words, one day you'll accept that we're different and that you'll never be rid of me!"

Tikki visibly twitched at his words. That was the straw that broke the ladybug-like sprite creature's back.

Against her better judgement, Tikki decided that today was the day she would be rid of Plagg. It was a risky move, but by this point she was so sick of the routine they were in that she desired any escape from his nonsense.

"Let's settle this, once and for all."

Plagg raised a brow upon hearing her declaration. Tikki promptly locked eyes with him, her posture showing that she was unwavering. "I cannot stand you," she paused slightly before continuing on with a slight frown, "and I'm also well aware that you can't stand me."

"Hey, I never said that I couldn't stand you," Plagg corrected with a roll of his eyes. "I just cannot stand your overly sappy 'let's be happy and create blah blah happiness blah don't be a homewrecker blah blah blah' propaganda."

"Anyway," Tikki raised her voice to drown out Plagg's objection, "There's only room in this place for one of us. This constant cycle of creating and destroying has left our immediate surroundings in quite the stalemate, so I'm offering you a deal."

She inhaled sharply with a whistle, looking straight at the aloof Plagg. This was it. The game-changer. After today, she'd finally be able to create to her heart's content, without that feline being the ultimate spoilsport. She licked her lips at the very thought.

"Let us see whose power is greater — yours, or mine. The winner gets to do as they deem fit to the universe." Her blue eyes confidently glazed over to Plagg's green ones as she issued him the challenge. "So, Plagg… are you in or not?" she asked, extending her red hand out in a manner which made it blatant that she was trying to coax him to accept.

Plagg raised an eyebrow, evidently surprised by the suddenness of such an act. No doubt it came off as hasty to him. But although it raised red flags in his mind, he was someone who recklessly dived headfirst into risks. "Yeah, sure. Whatever. Count me in," he decided, reaching for Tikki's hand and using his paw to shake on it.

And thus, the gauntlet was thrown down.

* * *

"Soooooo…" Plagg drawled the word out as he purred next to Tikki's face, much to her annoyance. "If I win, does that mean I get to destroy everything without complaint?" he asked with a wink.

"Perhaps… but you won't beat me!" Tikki scowled at him, prompting Plagg to smirk in response.

"Ohhh…" Plagg rubbed his paws together, eagerly twirling his tail around. "Is that a challenge? I like challenges! Bring it on, Bugaboo!"

Tikki stiffened when her mind processed what he'd just called her. "…Bugaboo?" she echoed, twitching her tails. Whether it was because Plagg actually had the gall to name her that or that he actually _bothered_ to nickname her, Tikki didn't know.

Nor did she care.

"Yeah. You _bug_ me out," he continued, his grin so wide it split his face in two.

Her eye twitched. Okay, now _that_ had to be on purpose. There was seriously no way that Plagg wasn't deliberately trying to rile her up right now.

Tikki had to take in a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down. Plagg was clearly trying to get her to lose focus.

But she knew that she had this in the bag. She was more experienced with her powers, more calm and collected. Plagg was like a whirlwind of disaster, destructive yet unfocused. There was no way that he would beat her, and with his loss she'd finally be rid of the annoying pest, once and for all.

"So the rules are simple," Tikki began to explain. "No time limit." She made sure that Plagg wasn't paying close attention when she mentioned this condition, and she allowed herself to momentarily flash a wry grin when she saw that he was indeed distracted. "We have to use our powers. The one with the more powerful technique at the end takes all." Before Plagg could smirk at her words, she made sure to stress the catch in the agreement, "However, the loser has to back off."

Plagg nodded in concurrence, a rambunctious glint in his eyes. "Loser backs off and allows the winner to have free reign?" He allowed a genuine smile to cross his face when he received confirmation simply by gazing at Tikki's steadfast expression. "Sounds good to me."

"Hmph!" Tikki folded her arms, her heart skipping a beat when she saw Plagg unwilling to back down as well. He appeared unfazed by the threat. _Treasonous little heart… calm down! You got this, Tikki. Dumb ol' Plagg's going down_, she thought, pushing down her last doubts.

"We'll see about that," she told the arrogant Plagg. There was a reason she had insisted on having no time limit for the challenge — it was so that she could conjure up the single most powerful Lucky Charm she'd ever done. There was no way Plagg would be able to beat her after she discharged her ultimate wave of creation.

She closed her eyes, meditating in mid-air and allowing her creative juices to flow. After what seemed like an eternity—namely because Plagg was annoying her even with her eyes closed—Tikki stretched her paws out and prepared to wipe the smug look off of Plagg's face.

Time to make history.

"**Lucky Charm!**" she cried, her voice reverberating through all of space as she forcibly thrust her arms out and unleashed a massive wave of red energy which rapidly spread out in all directions.

The aftermath of the maneuver left Tikki exhausted, but she smiled when she saw her crimson red wave speeding away, creating more and more celestial objects until the Lucky Charm was out of the line of sight of its own creator.

"Hee! Take that…" Tikki was about to brag, but trailed off upon noting that Plagg was looking upon the scene with a mixture of awe and melancholy.

She was hence summarily confused when he didn't immediately follow up her Lucky Charm with his own Cataclysm. "Um…" Tikki finally started when she saw him ignoring her, licking his fur. "Aren't you going to unleash an all-or-nothing Cataclysm attack on your end, Plagg?" she prompted.

"Nah!" he dissuaded with gleaming eyes. "Unlike what you think, I'm not going to do that. Not for the foreseeable future, at the very least."

"Huh?" She was confused, astounded by his refusal of the call. Just what was he thinking!? After dealing with Plagg for so long, Tikki was astonished that he didn't pounce at the opportunity to wreak mass havoc.

Why was he holding back now?

"You said it yourself," Plagg finally answered the unspoken question, a prideful smirk firmly on his face. "No time limit. In other words, if I don't use my ultimate Cataclysm, we're stuck in this bet forever. In other words, nobody will win and neither of us has to submit to the other."

Tikki turned pale. "Wh-what?" she stuttered.

He vehemently clapped his hands in a slow and deliberate manner, a deadpan expression on his face. "When you were charging up that Lucky Charm attack, did you know what I felt within me?" When she didn't answer, Plagg responded, his answer shaking Tikki to the core.

"I felt the urge to destroy everything you made." He calmly raised a paw up as she began to shake. "I can't help it — I am destruction incarnate…"

"Destruction incarnate?" Tikki managed to utter.

"Yes. If you are creation, then I am destruction…" Plagg closed his eyes, his tone lowering an octave, "…which makes me your polar opposite. I am your balance, your check. The more you create, the more I want to ruin."

Oh, _no_. Tikki wanted to hit something. She was a fool… a complete and utter fool!

A few moments ago, Tikki had literally created the most number of things in her entire existence, sending out a wave of creation so powerful that it literally pushed past the boundaries of space and continued to create empty space, expanding the entire universe. In fact, Tikki was so drained from her Lucky Charm that she felt as though she would never be the same again.

In other words, if what Plagg said was indeed true, she had unintentionally supercharged him as well, fortifying him with a destructive Cataclysm that was just as powerful. And now that she was weakened, there was nary a thing she could do to stop him from reversing everything that she'd done with his own Cataclysm.

She had been soundly put in her place by the being whom she looked down on and thought she could suppress.

She was wrong. She had been _so_ wrong.

"Heh! You really thought that you could beat me?" Plagg gloated, a triumphant grin on his visage as he saw comprehension dawning upon her. "I don't even have to unleash my Cataclysm! You're so weak now that even without it, the balance of power has shifted over to my side!"

Tikki couldn't help it. Plagg's comment was the tipping point. Despite herself, she felt a single tear forming on the edge of her blue eyes.

Plagg blanched and instantaneously regretted his brutally blunt words when the crimson figure by his front abruptly began to whimper. "Hey?" he scratched the back of his head, waving his free paw directly in front of Tikki's eyes in a bid to distract the frozen figure. "Are you okay?" he questioned.

His only response was Tikki breaking down.

"O-Oi!" Plagg yelped, freaking out. "Calm down, please! I don't do emotional stuff!" He hunched protectively over her broken form, feeling incredibly awkward as she began to bawl, the spotted Tikki completely inconsolable.

As Tikki blinked away blurry tears, she noted that Plagg was acting in a rather squeamish manner around her. No doubt he was feeling uncomfortable about the situation.

Or maybe he was feeling skittish out of awkwardness. She doubted that someone as callous as Plagg could even feel guilt after cruelly destroying her hopes and dreams without the slightest hint of remorse.

…could he?

"A-Alright…" Plagg uncomfortably swallowed, taking pity on his rival. "I'll… I'll relent." He looked like he had to force those words out of his mouth. "I assure you, I won't destroy your creations too much."

Another choked sob.

"Fine!" he exclaimed, flustered, "I won't destroy your precious creations!" Plagg looked away, grumbling under his breath. "Are you happy now, Tikki!?"

"Why…?" she choked out, bringing herself to ask when she saw him pulling away. "I don't understand…?"

She was at Plagg's mercy, and she knew it. Her fall had been precipitated by her own pride. If she'd put even an ounce of thought into it, she would have realized that he was the counter to her own powers, and thus she could not hope to rectify the problem with an overly hasty bet like that.

Truth be told, if she had won the challenge like she had planned, she definitely wouldn't have given Plagg a chance, and she was supposed to be the nicer of the two.

As a result, his current actions boggled her mind. Why was Plagg relenting and showing her mercy now?

"Look… I never wanted to hurt you," Plagg hastily averted his eyes, uneasiness detectable in his voice. "I only bragged about my victory and what I wanted to do because… I was jealous. So when I managed to get the upper hand for once, I took the chance."

Tikki sniffed. "For once?" she repeated, fighting down the urge to smile. Plagg was basically admitting that she was her better half, something which she thought she would never hear from his mouth.

"Yeah, for once," he confirmed for posterity. "Let's be real here, Tikki. You get the better deal. Why is it that you get to create such marvelous works while my only role is to destroy and devastate?" he bemoaned, angrily swiping at the air around him. "It's not fair… _it's not fair_!"

Tikki was shocked by what he was saying. He didn't enjoy destroying her creations? Before she could query Plagg about what he'd just said, he answered her, knowing exactly what was on her mind. "I liked destroying things at first." He gestured his paw to a nearby planet. "I mean, you were made to create, and I was made to destroy."

Listening intently, Tikki flinched when she saw him snarling. "But over time, I observed that by destroying things, no one ends up happy. They are your creations, after all, and my Cataclysm impartially turns it all into the same microscopic dust or a standard black hole!"

Without any warning, Plagg proceeded to lash out, angrily growling and flinging his paws about as he threw a tantrum. "My power is nothing compared to the wonders of yours! You can create a planet, or a star, or even a nebula! Every last one of them is different, but all _I_ do is make everything the same and ruin the wondrous scenery that you were gifted to mold into existence."

A tear trickled down his cheek as he yelled out to the stars, "I hate my role of being the destructive bad guy! I hate it, Tikki!"

Tikki reached out to the angry Plagg and gently massaged him with her arms, slowly managing to calm the irate cat down with every stroke across his fur.

Things had come full circle. Now it was her turn to console him.

"There's no need to be jealous of me, Plagg."

He looked at her in disbelief, which prompted Tikki to continue to ruffle his fur and carry on with her explanation. "It would appear that all this time, we were both looking at this the wrong way. We had been competing for eons, but now I can clearly see that we were not meant to bash heads, but instead to collaborate."

"Collaborate?" Plagg echoed.

Tikki gave him a firm nod. "That's right. Because of that rampant Lucky Charm which I'd sent out, I'm afraid that there might be too many creations now. I should never have broken the stalemate we had for the past couple of cycles — looking back, it was just our ways of keeping the other in check."

She took in a deep breath before whispering into his ear. "So now, I task you to destroy any of my creations as you deem fit should you judge that their time is up."

Plagg jerked around, gaping at her as though she was crazy. Tikki merely waited, looking at him with softened eyes until he realized that she was truly being serious.

"You'll really do that?" he asked, sucking in a bated breath. Though Plagg kept his body language guarded, she could hear the disbelief in his voice. "You're letting me have free reign?"

Tikki winked at him. "You didn't exactly win per-se, but you certainly were the more resourceful one. Besides, you'll definitely win if and when you decide to unleash your own attack, a scenario which I would rather much avoid," she made sure to stress the last few words when she saw Plagg grinning mischievously.

"Whoa, there!" Plagg calmly raised his paws up in surrender. "I already agreed not to devastate your planets too much!"

"I know, Plagg. As long as you don't go too crazy, I won't rein you in…" she acceded, "Besides, what right do I have to deny you?" Tikki asked aloud, the question directed more at herself than to Plagg. "In the end, you were only performing your given role when you destroyed them."

She was his lynchpin, and he was hers. Without either, the balance between the two would be thrown out of whack.

And with this new caveat of information and knowledge on hand, the two of them made up with a handshake and recontextualized their relationship — no longer enemies, now partners and… friends.

Tikki unconsciously purred in joy at the thought, much to Plagg's amusement. But she couldn't control herself — she liked the sound of her and Plagg putting aside their differences and beginning a newfound friendship.

With her paw wrapped around his, they both tentatively took that first step towards a combined future.

* * *

Things had changed a great deal since then.

Tikki and Plagg were eventually joined by a select few which helped make things marginally less lonely. Nooroo, Wayzz, Trixx, Pollen, and Duusu helped liven things up. Their species were then bestowed a name by the mortals, one befitting their powerful status and influence — _kwamis_.

Miracle gems known as the Miraculous that sealed them within were then forged. The Miraculous gave them the chance to interact with the dominant species that populated Planet Earth — homo sapiens, aka human beings. The jewels allowed the kwamis to be seen by the lower creatures in exchange for focusing their powers with the help of a human wielder… no, partner.

It was one fine day in Paris, France around the 21st century that the two brought up the topic of their reckless youth again. The instigating incident for causing the kwamis to reminisce about old times was surprisingly, of all things, a school lesson — a physics lesson about thermodynamics, to be precise.

"…pay attention, Rose!" Tikki could hear Ms. Mendeliev's voice from her hiding space inside Marinette's—her chosen—purse, the teacher's angered words piercing through the velvet silk lining that surrounded the kwami. "Anyway, as I was saying before being interrupted, entropy is the state of an object's energy, which always increases over time, further approaching a state of disorder."

"That fatal Lucky Charm I set loose…" Tikki moaned into her arms as the teacher's lesson painfully reminded her of her folly, "…the consequences of my hasty actions still reverberates and haunts me even today."

Next to her, Plagg raised an eyebrow, the kwami having escaped his own chosen to spend time with her. "I'm sorry, I didn't catch ya. What are you blabbering on about, huh?"

"Weren't you paying attention to what they're saying?" Tikki chided her jet-black counterpart, quickly finding herself getting exasperated at Plagg yet again.

Plagg merely let out a tired yawn in response. "Like you actually expected me to devote my attention to this?" he countered, "You think too highly of me, Sugarcube. My mind is only dedicated to sleep, Camembert, and nothing else."

"What about me?"

Plagg froze up, his eyes widening as he whipped around at her teasing question. His reaction was immediately rewarded by Tikki winking at him. "Sh-shut it…" he mumbled, knowing from Tikki's triumphant look that his argument about his single-track mind had just collapsed.

"You are _such_ a sourpuss," Tikki preened, ruffling his fur. Plagg shot his counterpart a warning glare, but let her get away with the act. He let her get away with a lot, actually. Why, he didn't even swat at her.

"Anyway, the lesson is on entropy," she explained to Plagg, "Entropy is the state of things becoming more muddled and falling into disarray as the passage of time passes."

Plagg perked up once he processed her words. "The study of how things get messier over time? Heh… now _that's_ a lesson which is close to my heart. It _is_ my natural state of equilibrium, after all." He stretched his legs as he lay down, belly-up, thereby proving Tikki's point.

Tikki was quick to counter with a reprimand. "No," she said with a knowing smile, "Things don't get muddled for you just because of some scientific term, Plagg. Things get messy on your end because you are an unbelievably lazy cat."

"Okay." He groaned, accepting Tikki's critique as he found himself unable to come up a suitable comeback — she'd hit the bullseye with her accusation, catching him red-handed. "You got me there, Sugarcube," he chortled.

Tikki let her eyes wander around, feeling incredibly exhausted as Plagg once again proved that he took any criticism which she lobbed at him very lightly. Perhaps once, she might have chastised him for his flippant disregard of her advice. But now, Tikki chose to let it slide, knowing that she couldn't really change Plagg even if she tried.

And besides, the reason that she always made sure to preach all of her standard 'Tikki's words of wisdom'™ like a broken recorder to every last one of her chosen was _because_ of Plagg. She'd come out wiser after Plagg had played her for a fool all those millennia ago, and hence resolved to ensure that no Ladybug under her charge would repeat the same hasty mistakes that she'd made before.

Yep, she had Plagg to thank for that. It would be cruelly ironic to subject Plagg to what he would call "my Sugarcube's tortuous words of diabetically sweet advice" when he'd actually been the one responsible for inculcating that culture in her in the first place.

Oh, Plagg…

Tikki's various chosens who knew the kwami inside and out were well aware that she almost never got upset. And yet, somehow Plagg would manage to push her buttons and force a scowl to replace her cheerful demeanor every single time.

When she wasn't laughing or rolling her eyes at him, that is.

The irritating cat frustrated Tikki to no end, but… she couldn't live without him. Tikki would never admit that fact to his face lest he held it over her spotted head for the rest of her eternal life, but she could not deny that she enjoyed—and at times even _craved_ for—Plagg's company.

Perhaps it was that thought that caused her to be truthful to him. "That fateful bet we made back then," Tikki lamented, a wistful sigh escaping her as she reminisced about a time long past. "It was… really stupid."

"Whaaaa—" Plagg gasped in an exaggerated fashion. "Who are you, and what have you done to Tikki? I mean, my prideful little sugarcube actually admitting that she'd made a lapse of judgement right to my face?" To Tikki's chagrin, he continued to accentuate his shock as much as he possibly could. "Completely implausible. Why, I fear that this world must truly be coming to an end!"

"Oh, don't be a drama queen, Plagg." Tikki scoffed, rolling her eyes as hard as she could at Plagg's performance.

His ears drooped, flattening against his body. "I resent that…" he grumbled.

Tikki had to hold her mouth shut to stifle a giggle — the last thing the kwami wanted was for Marinette to get suspicious, which would definitely happen if her chosen heard her laughing at Plagg from within the purse.

But try as she might, she couldn't fully suppress her laughter. Frankly, Plagg was quite the idiosyncratic kwami. Tikki was forced to admit that the lazy kitty was vastly different from all the other kwamis who had come after him.

She let out one final chuckle looking at Plagg with a serious expression, signaling to him that the time for jokes was over. "Back on topic, I fear that my super Lucky Charm from way back is slowly running out of juice. You can feel it, can't you Plagg? Surely you've noticed that your current powers of destruction far exceeds my powers of creation?"

"So you finally admit that I'm the better kwami!" Plagg smirked, before hastily drooping his head in shame when he saw Tikki's glare. "I'm sorry, bad time," he apologized, "Please continue."

Tikki dropped her scowl upon hearing his heartfelt apology. "As I was saying, my powers of creation have already been diminished over the years because I released so much of it in one single moment. One day I fear that my powers of creation can sustain no more thanks to entropy. And without my life force powering them, things will slowly head to their state of natural decay…"

"My forte," Plagg responded, twirling a whisker with pride. "Things naturally decaying to a state of disarray."

"That's right…" Tikki affirmed, "and it's all because I'm no longer as powerful as I once was. There's almost no more creation energy left within me because I unleashed ninety-nine percent of all my power in a single blast. I'm ancient, Plagg. I don't have the power to create as much as before. When that heat death thing eventually happens because of entropy dissipating away the life energy I gave to those stars and planets, there's nary a thing I can do about it." She held back a sob. "Without my life force from ancient times fueling the stars, the universe will be… cold and lifeless. A thick stew of darkness."

"Trust me, Tikki." Warmth could be discerned from his gleaming green eyes as he eyed his counterpart. "If it ever gets to that point, I'll mercy kill the entire universe."

Tikki audibly gasped, gaping at Plagg. "But if you do that—"

"—my own destructive powers will be drained, just like yours did when you'd set loose your most potent Lucky Charm."

"But you can't, Plagg!" she cried. "I don't want you to pay for my mistakes!"

Plagg sighed, shaking his head. "It wasn't solely your fault, you know? Back then, I'd unintentionally compounded your mistake with mine as well. I should have just unleashed my own Cataclysm before I cared too much about your creations to pull the plug on them. Now we have to wait an absolute eternity before we can make things right."

He placed a paw to his temple and frivolously rubbed it. "People nowadays don't treasure life as much as they fear death… the balance truly is off. All the power I accumulated because I didn't use that Cataclysm and kept it supercharged within me… it made people fear me as the kwami who takes things away."

"…just like what I felt about you at the start," Tikki mumbled, parsing Plagg's point rather quickly.

"That's right. Seriously, how I wish I can just restore the balance and make us both equally loved by all." Plagg wistfully looked up to the top of Marinette's linen purse, a crooked smile that he tended to eschew plastered firmly on his face. "I'll wait, Tikki," he finally said after a pause, "When there is no more life anymore, I won't feel bad about demolishing the remains. And then, light and creation will be the one back in control as the cycle begins anew. _Another new universe, Tikki._"

'But—"

"Oh, please." Plagg scoffed, waving a paw about. Tikki was immediately on edge upon noting that his demeanor had turned a complete one-eighty, his trademark goofy grin back on his visage.

"Like I'll wait until everything dies by slowly evaporating into gas clouds before I use my Cataclysm. Bleh!" he spat, "I'll be _so_ bored waiting for the end." He shook his head in annoyance. "You can't subject me to this torture. Tell ya what, I'll cut it short — if and when Camembert is wiped out of existence, I'll immediately reset the entire universe. Watch me, Tikki!"

"Plaggggggg!"

Plagg simply hollered without restraint and rolled over in laughter when he heard Tikki elongating his name in agitation.

"Ugh!" Tikki huffed, a tiny smile on her face. Despite everything, she knew that Plagg was only messing with her. He'd definitely changed, too. This Plagg was a far cry from the young and uncaring cat who had destroyed her creations for fun and out of sheer malice, or the somber Plagg who had confided to her in his darkest hour about how he despised his dedicated role as the dreaded kwami who brought destruction to all.

Plagg had most certainly mellowed out after he had accepted and settled into his role as the destroyer of worlds, resulting in the kwami's current personality being an even mix of the two extremes.

And honestly, Tikki preferred him this way.

"Look, Tikki…" Plagg trailed off, bashfully turning his head away before inhaling sharply. "You're my other half, okay?" he hastily blurted out as he fanned himself using a free paw, feeling the heat getting to him. "The universe will have to pry you off my cold, dead paw before I actually let you go."

Tikki went scarlet… well, even more scarlet than her usual bright red skin color. She was positive that her cheeks were glowing and silently prayed that Plagg didn't notice.

Could one blame her for her reaction? After all, that was probably the sappiest thing that she had heard him say in a couple of millennia.

Plagg then smirked, cutely flashing his small, adorable fangs. "And since I'm the all-powerful god of death and destruction," he bragged, prompting a roll of Tikki's eyes, "I'm practically immortal and thus immune to the prosaic routine of death… which means that I get to keep you by my side forever, Sugarcube!"

Tikki tried and failed to stifle her giggles upon hearing the possessive edge in his tone. Stand corrected, _this_ was the sappiest thing that had come out of Plagg's mouth in ages, inclusive of the Egyptian era where his chosen and the general public treated him and his species like a literal deity.

"Trust you to find loopholes in just about everything," Tikki groaned, floating towards him and stroking his fur. "That's totally you," she murmured.

Restraining his innate urge of letting out a purr—which would embarrass himself further—at her soft touch, Plagg took a step back and gave his counterpart an exaggerated formal bow. "What can I say, Tikki? I _am_ the bad boy, after all." He placed his paw to his chest after narrating his full title, acting like a young boy who expected a round of applause after his theatrics.

What Plagg got instead was Tikki clapping sarcastically, sighing exasperatedly at him for what seemed like the billionth time. Frankly, even he himself lost count of exactly how many times Tikki had sighed at him in disappointment.

But what Plagg _did_ know was something much more succinct. He knew that hidden under Tikki's stern expression was a fond, secret smile which she solely reserved just for him.

Despite all their differences, the two had ended up as the best of friends, tender soulmates—they admitted that much to each other after an inordinately long time of beating about the bush—who could always confide in one another.

And in the end, that was all they both wanted out of their immortal lives. A partner whom they could trust and count on for eternity.

* * *

In the end, there would be nothing but black.

Still. Dark. Empty.

But unbeknownst to all except for them both, after the end of it all… darkness would not reign supreme for long.

There had to be balance. Life always found a way.

Their current universe had slowly lost its life and vitality as the energy of Tikki's most powerful Lucky Charm released many millions of cycles ago slowly diminished. Slowly but surely, the balance was shifting to Plagg's domain.

And one day, when the energy was gone completely and the universe was left in an empty state of solitude, Plagg would be forced to claim it all.

If the kwami were to unleash a Cataclysm as devastating as what he knew he was capable of, he would be able to wipe out everything that Tikki had ever created. Nothing would stand a chance.

And with Plagg exhausting his power like Tikki had with that Lucky Charm many millions of years ago, the cycle would once again begin anew, the balance shifting from darkness and destruction back to life and creation. Plagg's final Cataclysm would lead into Tikki regaining her energy to use Lucky Charm en masse once more, and then from the darkness… would come light.

This ray of light would shine once more, permeating through the darkness and restarting everything anew.

Like a nostalgic memory, the two kwamis would once again recreate their youthful endeavors as they began their antics anew in a brand new universe, one brought forth by a balance between two vastly different individuals.

The embodiments of creation and destruction were destined to forever create and destroy, each counterbalancing the other to maintain the equilibrium in a manner similar to yin and yang.

A creative and kind-hearted ladybug. An impish and laid-back black cat. Two who were bound together by fate forevermore, whether as kwamis sealed in their respective Miraculous, the all-powerful young demigods they had once been at the beginning of the universe, or whatever lay in store for them both in the future.

No matter what, they would always be together.

And Tikki and Plagg wouldn't have it any other way.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

It's Valentine's Day. Have some cute fluff between Tikki and Plagg… there's surprisingly quite little of it.

I have no clue when the show will actually delve more into the actual lore of the Miraculous and the kwamis, but since it isn't likely to be anytime soon, I hope that you enjoy my take on it till then.

Anyway, I was watching theories on how the universe would end, and though heat death is the most likely scenario, I feel like the Big Bounce theory—Big Bang to Big Crunch to Big Bang, rinse and repeat ad infinitum—is the more optimistic one. So what better way than to relate the theory to Tikki and Plagg. I mean, creation and destruction, duh. :p

I hope you liked this piece! I made the mistake of writing down two fics for two separate fandoms with Valentine's Day as the deadline… never again. _That_ was an experience. xD


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